Publications
Available December 2024
In May 2023, a new term entered the public psyche: generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).
Like other emerging technologies before it, hype and FOMO influenced popular perceptions, describing a utopia of creative productivity, the automation of mundane white-collar tasks, and a leaner, more efficient workforce.
Having plundered the web of content to train its AI models, technology firms produced tools to create new content. But something was wrong. The information the tools produced was often inaccurate, prejudiced or completely made-up - sometimes dangerously so. In addition, original content was being repurposed, summarised, re-incorporated and regurgitated, creating increasingly derivative content and threatening copyright laws.
Re-examining the Dead Internet Theory of the last decade, “Saving the web…” provides a blueprint for a new approach to creating, protecting and distributing content on the internet in the era of GenAI. It is a rallying call to consumers, content creators and technology suppliers to engage with legislators and industry associations, to increase the protection of digital information, and to find alternative platforms and outlets for licencing and sharing.